Betonline

USA_flagBest poker, sportsbook + casino for US players, big bonus, deposit options for US customers.

Read More

Bet365 Poker

Our Top Room Pick. Best tournaments + support, lots of fish. Best Sportsbetting odds!

Read More

Carbon Poker

USA_flagEasy deposit options, great choice for US players. $600 bonus, very fishy room with lots of tournaments.

Read More

Pokerstars

Top room with a Bonus of $600, still the largest poker room. Lots of fish, massive tournament calendar.

Read More

Poker server blocked? How to play any online poker room, from anywhere - read this article!

These are the rooms with the easiest competition - check this article

5 good reasons to switch to a new poker room - read more ...

Best online Satellites for Live Poker Events - find them here!

Poker rooms with the best high stakes action - read this to find them.

Best poker and sportsbook combination - read this review.

Newest Poker Promotions

$88 Free No-Deposit Bonus from 888 Poker - Sign up here!

Best Overlay in Online Poker Guaranteed Tournaments

When you look at the "Guaranteed" poker tournaments that all online poker rooms offer, the first thing that most people look at is the buy-in versus the prize money guarantee to see how cheaply they can get in. But that is not the most important factor, because most of the time, the tournaments with small buy-ins and high prize money will end up seeing huge fields of players. At the end, the number of players multiplied with the buy-in in most cases will at least be equal to the prize money. That means that the prize money guarantee serves only one function, namely to attract lots of players to that tournament (and to the poker room of course).

The real advantage lies in the so-called overlay, that some tournaments regularly have.
So what does overlay mean? Very simple, it is the prize money added by the poker room itself. To give you an example: if a tournament has a buy-in of $50, and the prize money guarantee is $10,000, for the poker room to break even, they need 200 registrations for the tournament (not counting the "juice", or tournament fee). Now if for this tournament the number of registrations would just be 150 players, that would normally make for a prize money of $7,500. The difference of $2,500 is what the poker room adds to the prize money, and from the point of view of the player, this is the overlay. This is the equivalent of having good pot odds in a drawing hand, applied to a poker tournament with a prize money guarantee.

Having an overlay in a tournament gives the player an advantage because of the good relation between buy-in, prize money and number of players competing, thus increasing his statistical chances to make a profit. It is similar to having good pot odds for calling with a drawing hand.
This kind of overlay also occurs often in Rebuy tournaments, when weak players make late rebuys, thus increasing the prize money pot, without having a serious chance of ending in the money.
The real big tournaments rarely have such overlays, but in small to medium size tournaments one can very often find such overlays. Also, when a room is relatively new, it often offers guraranteed tournaments to attract players. Those tournaments tend to have less players and big overlays.

At the moment, the tournaments with the best chances to get a decent overlays are:

888 Poker Sunday $ 50.000 Challenge, on Sunday 13:36 ET or 18:35 GMT, buyin is $ 75, player numbers usually around 500 - very nice overlay and weak competition, lots of casino customers without poker skills!
Click here to download 888 Poker now, and use coupon code 341707 for their $400 up to 100% bonus. By the way, you get 25% of that bonus immediately after deposit!

Party Poker's $50.000 Guaranteed on Saturday, 15:00 ET or 20:00 GMT, with a buy-in of 320$. Because of the rather high buy-in, not too many players show up - but you can play one of the many satellites for a seat in this tournament, get in cheap and then use the overlaya to cash in!
Download PartyPoker here, and make sure you get the full $500 100% max. bonus using bonus code PKR100.
Deposit options for US poker fans

If you are based in the US, finding a poker room that accepts US players is only one of your problems. It is also difficult to make money transfers. But there are a number of options for deposits and withdrawals for US gamblers and we have described them here ... read more

All Freeroll Poker Tournaments starting now

All the big poker rooms are offering freeroll tournaments. There is no need to deposit, but you can still win real money. To find a permanently updated schedule of all freerolls starting in the next few minutes, across all rooms - click this link!

Play Poker and Blackjack at the same room

Blackjack is one of the most popular casino games, due to a low house edge and the fact that strategy can improve your results. But not all poker rooms have Blackjack too. Find our favorite rooms for Poker and Blackjack - read this!

European Poker Tour qualifiers

The European Poker Tour is becoming more and more popular. With moderate buy-ins, but very large prize pools, a lot of money can be made at these events. In consequence, several rooms are offering satellites to qualify for the offline EPT events. To find out which rooms offer the best chances for EPT qualification read this article.